Why we take a share and not your attention
Simuze has no ads. This is how it pays for itself, what share we take from each kind of sale, and why every checkout shows the split.
If a product is free, you are the product. I wrote that down early, because I did not want Simuze to be free in that way.
There are no ads on Simuze and there never will be. We do not sell data and we do not rank anyone by how much they pay. That leaves one honest way to keep the lights on, which is to take a small share of what is sold through the site, and to say so out loud.
The share is different for each kind of sale because the work is different. On a ticket we keep five percent. On a download we keep ten, on merch eight and on a booking five. The rest goes to the act or the venue. These numbers are where we start. If they change, the checkout will say so before anyone pays, and it will always show the split in numbers, not in a footnote.
Payments and payouts run through Simezu, the account and payment service I also build, and the invoices come from Rozuro. So the money does not pass through a spreadsheet of mine. A band connects a payout account once, and sales are paid out from there. A buyer does not need an account to buy a ticket.
Most things on Simuze cost nothing. A page, the music you upload, the agenda, the player, a place on a bill, a message to a booker: none of it carries a fee. We only earn when you earn, which is a fair arrangement for a band that plays for the door.
I played in bands for years and I know what it is like to find out afterwards how much of the money disappeared into fees nobody explained. Showing the split at checkout is a small thing. It costs me nothing to do and it tells a buyer where the money goes.
Will it be enough? I do not know yet. A share of small sales is small money, and Simuze will have to grow before it pays for itself. But I would rather build something that earns slowly from the people it serves than something that earns fast from their attention.
Love, Marten
Love, Marten